Islamic Puritanism

I'm not going to get involved in the argument over whether the latest Al-Qa'ida letter is fake. I am going to use the opportunity to point out a strong similarity between so-called "Islamic Fundamentalism" and Puritanism.

from Reuters:

"Michael Scheuer, a former CIA analyst and critic of the U.S. war against terrorism, also said the letter appeared authentic.

"Scheuer said the letter's admission of setbacks were typical of al Qaeda. "They have always been almost puritanical in talking about setbacks.""

Nowadays Americans tend to think of "Puritan" as a synonym for prude, and focus on such negative aspects of the movement as witchcraft trials, but in fact the Puritans were heavily involved in the growth of Parliamentary supremacy and eventually democracy in the English speaking world.

What they didn't give us is the one positive tradition that most American history texts that students get attribute to them. I'm speaking of religious tolerance. It didn't come from Massachusetts. It came from Rhode Island, where refugees from Puritanism fled.

The parallels, for better or worse, between Puritanism and modern Islamic extremism could easily be stretched too far, but they do exist. Religious people, "people of faith" if you will, have been trying for centuries to come to terms with the modern world. It has been rough. Islamic civilization is starting, in its own way, to go through a process that western Christian civilization has been going through, too.